Trump and the art of (political) war

OK, finally, we appear to have real evidence of White House collusion with Russia … and China. It’s hiding in plain sight, in the polls, in the State of the Union message, and in the United States Congress.

Trump obviously has taken lessons from Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping. Everyone knows that Putin is proud of his judo skills, and paramount among those skills is to let opponents defeat themselves by using their over-eager momentum to propel themselves onto the ground. Also, anyone who has studied Chinese strategists — certainly Xi is an expert — knows that one principle of warfare is too look small and strike big.

Most Americans understand that socialist Utopian dreams usually kill the golden goose.

And so Trump ambles out alone onto the battlefield to face this huge charging mob and, like a matador, brandishes his red cape. He shouts out, “Peace in Korea!” “No socialism in America!” “Let’s move America forward!” The mob shouts in return: “No!” “Resist!” “Impeach!” as it stampedes forward. At the last minute, Trump pulls back the red cape in time for the mob to rush past, missing the target and plunging headlong over the political cliff. Putin could not have executed a better judo throw. The Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu could have not created a better battle plan.

The American political electorate always swings slightly left or right of center and looks for credible candidates who seem to represent their real concerns. After eight years of progressive domination in Washington, the electorate was ready for Trump’s populist appeal in 2016. But his subsequent behavior has set the stage for more appealing centrist Democrats to seize the White House, and possibly the Senate, in 2020.

Yet, so far, the Democrats have failed miserably, allowing Trump to appear reasonable and seize more of the middle — and “middle” means “winning.” For whatever reason, the Democrats are narrowing themselves as unreasonable socialists. As 2020 approaches, the herd of Democrats, blinded by hatred, fighting each other, running the Congress and running for president, are turning a winning strategy into a herd of lemmings running over a cliff and probably losing not only the White House, but also the Congress and Senate.

Grady Means is a writer and retired corporate strategy consultant. He was special assistant to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller for domestic policy in the Ford White House, and was an economist and policy analyst for Secretary Elliot Richardson in the former Department of Health, Education and Welfare from 1971-73.